Authorship and SEO

February 21, 2013 | by Susan Cato | Posted in Search Engine Optimization

Authorship is rapidly becoming important to search engine optimization (SEO).  As Google starts to look at the author of the content and their influence as much as the website on which it is posted, Google also looks at the relationships that the author has with other authors in the space. This article on Search Engine Journal is a good introduction to the importance of authorship to SEO.

You may already be aware that there is actually a tag (rel=author) that confirms authorship. In addition to that tag, there are some other major factors of authorship that affect SEO:

1. Influencer Relations
   Influencer relations are factors of authorship that have an affect the ranking in Google search engines. Whether based on social media, commenting, inbound and outbound links, etc., these extra factors make a difference on where an article might appear in  search results. This quote from a the Search Engine Journal article explains how authors are ranked based on their factors:

    

   “…Authors are then ranked based on the engagement factors of the content they produce. These factors include: social endorsements (tweets, +1’s, shares, likes); the influence and relevancy of those providing the social endorsements; comments on social networks (such as Yelp); the influence and relevancy of those commenting; and the quality and relevancy of inbound links pointing to the content…”

   Another strengthener for influencer relations is the searcher’s your relationship with the author. Imagine you are researching search engine optimization techniques. If you are utilizing personalized results, and you are a friend of a friend with an author, it is more likely for that author’s content to rank higher in your personalized results based on the number and strength of connection between you, the author, and the author’s friends.
    

2. Online Social Community
   When the Society of Digital Agencies published its Digital Outlook Marketing Strategy, they found that brands planned to capitalize on word-of-mouth traffic and blogger outreach in earned media. As brands market products and services, their authorship will affect the authorship of the bloggers and commenters of other people, potentially giving the brand better SEO through the authorship of multiple people. 
    
3. Authorship Disclaimer
   As much as an influence authorship may have on SEO, the reader should consider the titles of certain articles with a grain of salt.  When reading an article, consider the author’s motive. It has a bigger effect on authorship than you might think. The author is going to write an article for it to get published, have a multitude of people read it, and, if applicable, have the agency gain new business.
    
4. Resources
   Here is a list of Authorship Resources. Bill Slawski’s early treatment on Author Rank from 2007 is a worthwhile read, as is the follow up treatment as they updated the patent. AJ Kohn’s coverage of this topic is useful, as are Greg Boser’s thoughts shared at Pubcon.  
    

It is safe to assume many  brands are not thinking about SEO while they are doing this. Getting in front of these audiences is worthwhile for brand impact alone. SEO impact is directly measureable, and influencer relations are a long-term insurance and a defensible source of mind-share.

This post was contributed by Eric Werner, an interactive marketing consultant specializing in web analytics, organic search engine optimization, and pay-per-click management.